MIke Napoli is not the future. Middlebrooks and BOGAERTS are the supposed future and long term success. Napoli is hitting .246 with little power(14 hr's) and to many strikeouts.

So why not move Middlebrooks over to 1b and call up Xander BOGAERTS to play 3b.

That may well be the solution, but you can't do it at this point of the season. Middlebrooks has never played a game at first.

Agreed, but shouldn't have this scenario been planned for in advanced?

I guess Ben felt Carp, Nava, and Papi had first covered well enough, in case of Napoli getting injured or failing badly.

I guess Ben has Bogaerts penciled in at SS for the near future, or else, he would have given him more reps at 3B than he has gotten, and started to groom Middy for 1B this year, so he'd be ready for 2014 at 1B.

Not really worried too much about it yet. Would be nice to have someone protecting Ortiz in the lineup come playoff time though. Maybe moving Ortiz to third and Pedroia to 4th in the lineup would be a possibility if Napoli can't break out of this slump. Plenty of baseball left for him to find his game again, though.

MIke Napoli is not the future. Middlebrooks and BOGAERTS are the supposed future and long term success. Napoli is hitting .246 with little power(14 hr's) and to many strikeouts.

So why not move Middlebrooks over to 1b and call up Xander BOGAERTS to play 3b.

That may well be the solution, but you can't do it at this point of the season. Middlebrooks has never played a game at first.

Agreed, but shouldn't have this scenario been planned for in advanced?

I guess Ben felt Carp, Nava, and Papi had first covered well enough, in case of Napoli getting injured or failing badly.

I guess Ben has Bogaerts penciled in at SS for the near future, or else, he would have given him more reps at 3B than he has gotten, and started to groom Middy for 1B this year, so he'd be ready for 2014 at 1B.

Cecchini may push that decision eventually anyways by 2015.

Yeah, I always felt that the ideal would be Iglesias at short, Bogaerts at third and Middlebrooks at first. If Cecchini makes the grade, there is still left field for one of them. Ortiz will not be around forever, so a rotating DH is another option. You want to find a spot for all of your best players. With Iglesias gone, that will change things somewhat.

Given his historic aversion to walks, Will Middlebrooks is highly unlikely to approach Mike Napoli's career on-base percentage of .354 (or Napoli's 2013 OBP of .341). A player's OBP rarely improves with the jump from the minors to the majors. Middlebrooks has a minor league career OBP of .332 and an MLB career OBP of .287.

Given an entire season, Middlebrooks could challenge Napoli's upcoming team record for strikeouts in a season.

MIke Napoli is not the future. Middlebrooks and BOGAERTS are the supposed future and long term success. Napoli is hitting .246 with little power(14 hr's) and to many strikeouts.

So why not move Middlebrooks over to 1b and call up Xander BOGAERTS to play 3b.

That may well be the solution, but you can't do it at this point of the season. Middlebrooks has never played a game at first.

Agreed, but shouldn't have this scenario been planned for in advanced?

I guess Ben felt Carp, Nava, and Papi had first covered well enough, in case of Napoli getting injured or failing badly.

I guess Ben has Bogaerts penciled in at SS for the near future, or else, he would have given him more reps at 3B than he has gotten, and started to groom Middy for 1B this year, so he'd be ready for 2014 at 1B.

Cecchini may push that decision eventually anyways by 2015.

I agree re. picking up a position overnight. To me Xman should be playing 1 B every game through the Sept. call-ups. If he plays in the Maj. League playoffs it will be at 1 B and not 3 B unless WMB gets hurt. With DeSar's help and taking 100 ground balls everyday in pregame he could get a crash course for the position. It would certainly put some added pressure on Nap to start making some contact at the plate instead of leaving an average of 3 to 5 runners on base every game. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us--hope is--Nap start by watching the ball and make contact or take a seat at the end of the bench. If he could get clearance from the doctors play him behind the plate---if not I would suggest in this order:

Carp, Xman, Reynolds, Morneau.---Designate Nap or keep him as a PHitter when rosters expand.

First of all, the AAA team did tried putting Bogaret at 3b for some time, and they do not think he have the capable to play there which that is why he go back to his natural position, SS. Middlebrook is an experience 3B. If you going to move him to 1b, who will play 3b. Not Bogaret. Remember there are more balls going toward his way than going to the 1b. Boston won the game last nite by one run. If that was Bogaret playing 3B, and who know he could have made one or maybe two errors or maybe he should have field couple other balls instead he let it go to the OF, and Toronto is more likely going to win the game 9 innings.

Remember this is a pennant race, and not all games are going to be a blow out. Boston do not have a whole alot of time to try to experience with a new look defense. Look at last nite games, Arizona came back and won the game. St Louis came back and won the game. How they do it? They do it with excellent pitching and good defense. Remember good defense win alot of tight game.

So therefore, Boston do not have much choice on how to use Bogaret nor how to find someone else to play first base. Yes Carp is the only option left, but I am not sure why he havent been playing there. Maybe it is because Napoli may be a better defender than him. I dont know.

Let it go. Like I said it before, Farrell knows what he is doing at the same time Boston put one game more lead on Tampa and Baltimore. That is all matter to us.

I'm as tired as anyone is of watching Napoli strike out. He's a Major League hitter with ML skills and ML coaches helping him, so why can't he break out of this?? I hvae no idea but I still think it's related to the dizziness spells he had at the beginning of the year. He was a hitting machine before that and has turned into a strikeout machine since. I DO feel badly for the guy though. A player knows when he's hurting the team.

But let's not lose track of the fact that while he may have kept the Sox from winning in regulation last night he also may have saved the game with his defense. Napoli made two outstanding plays in crucial situations that certainly contributed to the win, plays that many 1B wouldn't have made.

Which brings me to the comment above that anyone can play 1st base. That's absolutely true. Anyone can. But not anyone can play it well and a good defensive 1B makes the entire IF better. A good defensive 1B executes the tag play well and digs balls out of the dirt. A good 1B allows the rest of the IF to know that if they can get the ball to the area of 1B it's going to be an out. That allows them to come up firing and not take that split second to think about having to make a 'perfect throw'.

At one time the Sox had a SS who converted to 3B named John Montgomery who washed out of baseball because he had 1B with stone hands covering the bag. Montgomery lost confidence in his ability to throw the ball becaue he got charged with errors on balls in the dirt that a good 1B would have scooped out. And things went progressively downhill from there....

IMO a solid defensive 1B is a cornerstone of a team. He makes the entire IF better.

Having the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

If anything Bogaerts should be playing 1B in Pawtucket. He is supposedly going to be playing 3B twice as often with WMB up. The plan is obvious for him to fill in at 3B or SS if WMB turns back into a pumpkin or someone gets injured.

But 1B is one of the easiest postions on the diamond to play, and Bogaerts plays a position that demands the most athleticism. I'm not saying it's a slam dunk he can play it; but their is ZERO reason to believe he couldn't pick it up relatively quick if givent he time there.

No way he should come up to play the position, but he should at least be getting reps there in Pawtucket. He should be the first guy to come up if WMB/NAPLOLI/DREW go down.

Long term, playing Bogaerts at first is beyond senseless, but as an option this year.....it's not the craziest idea.

Agreed, but shouldn't have this scenario been planned for in advanced?

I guess Ben felt Carp, Nava, and Papi had first covered well enough, in case of Napoli getting injured or failing badly.

I guess Ben has Bogaerts penciled in at SS for the near future, or else, he would have given him more reps at 3B than he has gotten, and started to groom Middy for 1B this year, so he'd be ready for 2014 at 1B.

Cecchini may push that decision eventually anyways by 2015.

I agree re. picking up a position overnight. To me Xman should be playing 1 B every game through the Sept. call-ups. If he plays in the Maj. League playoffs it will be at 1 B and not 3 B unless WMB gets hurt. With DeSar's help and taking 100 ground balls everyday in pregame he could get a crash course for the position.

Good idea. I had suggested Boggy ending up at 1B as he filled out. I wasn't sure who was the better fielding 3Bman, Boggy or Middy, so I mentioned that whoever was better at 3B, the other would learn 1B sooner rather than later. Middy struggled in the field this year, so I thought it seemed best to go with Boggy at 3B, Middy at 1B, but that was when I had Iggy penciled in at SS for years to come.

Now that Middy is back in the bigs, Boggy is the only one that can take a crash course at 1B in AAA. Middy could practice some at 1B in non game situations, just in case.

We should see Papi at 1B for 4-5 of the 6 games gainst the NL coming up. We can also play Carp, Nava or even Salty at 1B if needed, but it does seem like Middy should be at 1B eventually, Boggaerts at 3B eventually, and back to looking for a SS again. Maybe Drew will be signed for a short term deal to bridge to Marrero.

Anyone with an IQ above 65 should be able to learn 1st base pretty easy. It's not THAT tough of a position to play. Just learn the cutoffs and the bench would help on positioning.

Napoli is in a horrible slump, but for once, I hope the numbers guys are right and he picks it up soon this part of the season.

It'll be interesting to see how serious the club is in signing Abreu.

yes you can learn it, but not in a pennant race.

WMB and Bogey are NOT playing 1b in a pennant race. Not happening. Naps, Carp, Nava and papi on the NL games. Thats the hand were dealt and thats what got us this far. Farrell should realize that when napoli already has 2 or 3 K's that its ok to PH for him from the 7th inning on vs RHP. When he figures out hes allowed to do that, then maybe we will see more production. Farrell takes some blame here for not using his bench and sticking with a guy to a fault.

First of all, the AAA team did tried putting Bogaret at 3b for some time, and they do not think he have the capable to play there which that is why he go back to his natural position, SS. Middlebrook is an experience 3B. If you going to move him to 1b, who will play 3b. Not Bogaret. Remember there are more balls going toward his way than going to the 1b. Boston won the game last nite by one run. If that was Bogaret playing 3B, and who know he could have made one or maybe two errors or maybe he should have field couple other balls instead he let it go to the OF, and Toronto is more likely going to win the game 9 innings.

They are still playing Boggy at 3B every 6 or 7 games. They haven't given up on him there. I do think trading Iggy showed their intention to keep Boggy at SS, but maybe they are planning on keeping Drew around and making the switches this off-season.

Remember this is a pennant race, and not all games are going to be a blow out. Boston do not have a whole alot of time to try to experience with a new look defense. Look at last nite games, Arizona came back and won the game. St Louis came back and won the game. How they do it? They do it with excellent pitching and good defense. Remember good defense win alot of tight game.

This exactly the reason I suggested these guys get some reps at different positions starting last year, but nearly everyone here said, "what's the hurry".

So therefore, Boston do not have much choice on how to use Bogaret nor how to find someone else to play first base. Yes Carp is the only option left, but I am not sure why he havent been playing there. Maybe it is because Napoli may be a better defender than him. I dont know.

Carp is slumping too, Ks a lot, and is a worse fielder than Naps. Still, playing Carp vs most RHPs makes sense.

Let it go. Like I said it before, Farrell knows what he is doing at the same time Boston put one game more lead on Tampa and Baltimore. That is all matter to us.

It's up to Ben, not John. Once Boggy is on the 25 man roster, then we will see what John does.

First of all, the AAA team did tried putting Bogaret at 3b for some time, and they do not think he have the capable to play there which that is why he go back to his natural position, SS.

Source for this? Not saying you are wrong, I just haven't read anything regarding the team giving up on Xander playing 3B. He was at third last night for Pawtucket and got some action there.

That is because Boston is afraid that Middlebrook could get into a slump again. If he continue doing what he have been doing since he got called up, then he is going to be the every day 3b for the rest of the season except he could get some rest to prepare for the post season.

I'm as tired as anyone is of watching Napoli strike out. He's a Major League hitter with ML skills and ML coaches helping him, so why can't he break out of this?? I hvae no idea but I still think it's related to the dizziness spells he had at the beginning of the year. He was a hitting machine before that and has turned into a strikeout machine since. I DO feel badly for the guy though. A player knows when he's hurting the team.

But let's not lose track of the fact that while he may have kept the Sox from winning in regulation last night he also may have saved the game with his defense. Napoli made two outstanding plays in crucial situations that certainly contributed to the win, plays that many 1B wouldn't have made.

Which brings me to the comment above that anyone can play 1st base. That's absolutely true. Anyone can. But not anyone can play it well and a good defensive 1B makes the entire IF better. A good defensive 1B executes the tag play well and digs balls out of the dirt. A good 1B allows the rest of the IF to know that if they can get the ball to the area of 1B it's going to be an out. That allows them to come up firing and not take that split second to think about having to make a 'perfect throw'.

At one time the Sox had a SS who converted to 3B named John Montgomery who washed out of baseball because he had 1B with stone hands covering the bag. Montgomery lost confidence in his ability to throw the ball becaue he got charged with errors on balls in the dirt that a good 1B would have scooped out. And things went progressively downhill from there....

IMO a solid defensive 1B is a cornerstone of a team. He makes the entire IF better.

Having the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Good post.

I don't see Middlebrooks or even Carp, making the defensive plays that Napoli made last night.

I feel a little weird taking the corner in this argument because I'm not whole heartedly in support of it. So please be gentle!!!! But could Xander really be a worse option than Napoli and or Carp going down the stretch? He's an elite talent, and he is a RHH who is looking pretty ready in Pawtucket, he also has a 1.014 OPS vs. LHP.

FWIW......he has more than DOUBLE the at bats Middlebrooks had in Pawtucket before his callup. Xander is an elite talent that has shown the ability to make adjustments at every level much quicker than Will did.

I'm not saying call him up right now, but shouldn't he at least be taking some games at 1B? I'd like to have him as an option at SS/3B and 1B. He can learn the position in Pawtucket, I feel like it should at least be an option right now because if Napoli can't come out of this slump.......we're in trouble in the playoffs. Walk Ortiz all day long, other teams just won't even think about it, he won't get pitched to at atll.

I'm as tired as anyone is of watching Napoli strike out. He's a Major League hitter with ML skills and ML coaches helping him, so why can't he break out of this?? I hvae no idea but I still think it's related to the dizziness spells he had at the beginning of the year. He was a hitting machine before that and has turned into a strikeout machine since. I DO feel badly for the guy though. A player knows when he's hurting the team.

But let's not lose track of the fact that while he may have kept the Sox from winning in regulation last night he also may have saved the game with his defense. Napoli made two outstanding plays in crucial situations that certainly contributed to the win, plays that many 1B wouldn't have made.

Which brings me to the comment above that anyone can play 1st base. That's absolutely true. Anyone can. But not anyone can play it well and a good defensive 1B makes the entire IF better. A good defensive 1B executes the tag play well and digs balls out of the dirt. A good 1B allows the rest of the IF to know that if they can get the ball to the area of 1B it's going to be an out. That allows them to come up firing and not take that split second to think about having to make a 'perfect throw'.

At one time the Sox had a SS who converted to 3B named John Montgomery who washed out of baseball because he had 1B with stone hands covering the bag. Montgomery lost confidence in his ability to throw the ball becaue he got charged with errors on balls in the dirt that a good 1B would have scooped out. And things went progressively downhill from there....

IMO a solid defensive 1B is a cornerstone of a team. He makes the entire IF better.

Having the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Good post.

I don't see Middlebrooks or even Carp, making the defensive plays that Napoli made last night.

I'm sorry, but 1B requires the least amount of athleticism on the diamond......almost every 1Bman is just a good hitter who didn't have the defensive ability to play another position. I'm not saying that ANYONE can play it, and it doesn't require skills (digging balls out of the dirt etc etc etc) But a kid who plays the most physically demanding position should be able to play it.

As a general rule, short stops are the most athletic players on any team (although some CF's might give them a run for their money). So there is no reason to believe someone else couldn't learn the position and play it at a servicable level rather quick.

I'm as tired as anyone is of watching Napoli strike out. He's a Major League hitter with ML skills and ML coaches helping him, so why can't he break out of this?? I hvae no idea but I still think it's related to the dizziness spells he had at the beginning of the year. He was a hitting machine before that and has turned into a strikeout machine since. I DO feel badly for the guy though. A player knows when he's hurting the team.

But let's not lose track of the fact that while he may have kept the Sox from winning in regulation last night he also may have saved the game with his defense. Napoli made two outstanding plays in crucial situations that certainly contributed to the win, plays that many 1B wouldn't have made.

Which brings me to the comment above that anyone can play 1st base. That's absolutely true. Anyone can. But not anyone can play it well and a good defensive 1B makes the entire IF better. A good defensive 1B executes the tag play well and digs balls out of the dirt. A good 1B allows the rest of the IF to know that if they can get the ball to the area of 1B it's going to be an out. That allows them to come up firing and not take that split second to think about having to make a 'perfect throw'.

At one time the Sox had a SS who converted to 3B named John Montgomery who washed out of baseball because he had 1B with stone hands covering the bag. Montgomery lost confidence in his ability to throw the ball becaue he got charged with errors on balls in the dirt that a good 1B would have scooped out. And things went progressively downhill from there....

IMO a solid defensive 1B is a cornerstone of a team. He makes the entire IF better.

Having the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Good post.

I don't see Middlebrooks or even Carp, making the defensive plays that Napoli made last night.

I'm sorry, but 1B requires the least amount of athleticism on the diamond......almost every 1Bman is just a good hitter who didn't have the defensive ability to play another position. I'm not saying that ANYONE can play it, and it doesn't require skills (digging balls out of the dirt etc etc etc) But a kid who plays the most physically demanding position should be able to play it.

As a general rule, short stops are the most athletic players on any team (although some CF's might give them a run for their money). So there is no reason to believe someone else couldn't learn the position and play it at a servicable level rather quick.

There's playing 1b in "serviceable" fashion and there's playing it very well.

I'd say Napoli has been playing 1b very well.

What happens in that game if Napoli doesn't catch the foul pop, with two on and one out, in the 9th?

I don't want someone learning the position in the middle of a division race.

ST, sure. Now? No way.

I agree that Napoli's at bats have been painful to watch.

But, I don't agree that you can just throw any body over there, at this point in the season.

I'm as tired as anyone is of watching Napoli strike out. He's a Major League hitter with ML skills and ML coaches helping him, so why can't he break out of this?? I hvae no idea but I still think it's related to the dizziness spells he had at the beginning of the year. He was a hitting machine before that and has turned into a strikeout machine since. I DO feel badly for the guy though. A player knows when he's hurting the team.

But let's not lose track of the fact that while he may have kept the Sox from winning in regulation last night he also may have saved the game with his defense. Napoli made two outstanding plays in crucial situations that certainly contributed to the win, plays that many 1B wouldn't have made.

Which brings me to the comment above that anyone can play 1st base. That's absolutely true. Anyone can. But not anyone can play it well and a good defensive 1B makes the entire IF better. A good defensive 1B executes the tag play well and digs balls out of the dirt. A good 1B allows the rest of the IF to know that if they can get the ball to the area of 1B it's going to be an out. That allows them to come up firing and not take that split second to think about having to make a 'perfect throw'.

At one time the Sox had a SS who converted to 3B named John Montgomery who washed out of baseball because he had 1B with stone hands covering the bag. Montgomery lost confidence in his ability to throw the ball becaue he got charged with errors on balls in the dirt that a good 1B would have scooped out. And things went progressively downhill from there....

IMO a solid defensive 1B is a cornerstone of a team. He makes the entire IF better.

Having the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Good post.

I don't see Middlebrooks or even Carp, making the defensive plays that Napoli made last night.

I'm sorry, but 1B requires the least amount of athleticism on the diamond......almost every 1Bman is just a good hitter who didn't have the defensive ability to play another position. I'm not saying that ANYONE can play it, and it doesn't require skills (digging balls out of the dirt etc etc etc) But a kid who plays the most physically demanding position should be able to play it.

As a general rule, short stops are the most athletic players on any team (although some CF's might give them a run for their money). So there is no reason to believe someone else couldn't learn the position and play it at a servicable level rather quick.

There's playing 1b in "serviceable" fashion and there's playing it very well.

I'd say Napoli has been playing 1b very well.

What happens in that game if Napoli doesn't catch the foul pop, with two on and one out, in the 9th?

I don't want someone learning the position in the middle of a division race.

ST, sure. Now? No way.

I agree that Napoli's at bats have been painful to watch.

But, I don't agree that you can just throw any body over there, at this point in the season.

No you can't "just throw" anybody over there....but there are plenty of athletic players who have the athleticism to play the position great. Jacoby Ellsbury could probably come in and be one of the better defenders there within a couple weeks. Obviously that notion is absolutely absurd and ridiculous, but the point is the bar is set very low on skill level for the position.

I understand that this doesn't mean that someone like Bogaerts or WMB or anyone else that anyone could name will just pick it up. But there is no reason to believe that a talented athletic kid couldn't learn the position and play it relatively well quick.

Maybe someone else doesn't make that catch, but maybe they do. Is a short stop or 3Bman incapable of tracking a popup because they see it come off the bat on the otherside of the diamond? the physics of it doesn't change, the hand to eye cordination doesn't change.

Maybe someone else doesn't make that play, but maybe they hit a double with the bases loaded or at least hit a single or make some kind of offensive contribution during the game.

I'm sorry, but 1B requires the least amount of athleticism on the diamond......almost every 1Bman is just a good hitter who didn't have the defensive ability to play another position. I'm not saying that ANYONE can play it, and it doesn't require skills (digging balls out of the dirt etc etc etc) But a kid who plays the most physically demanding position should be able to play it.

As a general rule, short stops are the most athletic players on any team (although some CF's might give them a run for their money). So there is no reason to believe someone else couldn't learn the position and play it at a servicable level rather quick.

Please don't misconstrue my comment. I wasn't saying that Bogarts or Ellsbury couldn't play 1B very well. I fully recognize that 1B is on the lower end of the defensive ability spectrum. I'd be reluctant to put Pedey there because, well, size matters, but at the same time there are good ML 1B and bad ones and Napoli is a much better one than I expected him to be.

The purpose of my post was to at least make people aware that while Napoli's offense is frustrating, he is still contributing to the wins. In spite of the K's he's still one of the league leaders in PPA which translates to sometimes getting a SP out of the game earlier than he othewise would be.

I'm sorry, but 1B requires the least amount of athleticism on the diamond......almost every 1Bman is just a good hitter who didn't have the defensive ability to play another position. I'm not saying that ANYONE can play it, and it doesn't require skills (digging balls out of the dirt etc etc etc) But a kid who plays the most physically demanding position should be able to play it.

As a general rule, short stops are the most athletic players on any team (although some CF's might give them a run for their money). So there is no reason to believe someone else couldn't learn the position and play it at a servicable level rather quick.

Please don't misconstrue my comment. I wasn't saying that Bogarts or Ellsbury couldn't play 1B very well. I fully recognize that 1B is on the lower end of the defensive ability spectrum. I'd be reluctant to put Pedey there because, well, size matters, but at the same time there are good ML 1B and bad ones and Napoli is a much better one than I expected him to be.

The purpose of my post was to at least make people aware that while Napoli's offense is frustrating, he is still contributing to the wins. In spite of the K's he's still one of the league leaders in PPA which translates to sometimes getting a SP out of the game earlier than he othewise would be.

The K's are frustrating but he IS bringing things to the table.

I can agree with that, at the very least he has added value on defense. People often forget how much of this game can be mental. When you aren't there mentally and it affects your game sometimes that carry's over into defense as well. Not all the time but I see it happen. It happened to WMB earlier this year. He was a guy who was known for having outstanding defense and when his bat went south he even looked a little off out in the field as well. But you need some offense at first base, yes he has looked good in the field but it doesn't come close to how bad he's looked at the plate. And everything I said about other players playing first base doesn't apply to short players (sorry pedey). I want a tall guy who has the range to reach up high and wide to grab those throws.